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Insurance Adjusiors Use TV, Video.jpes For Claims
The newest technique for investigating insurance claims is being put to its first major test along the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Camille.
Adjusters for Fireman’s Fund .American Insurance Companies are . using a portable television camera-recorder to help process claims of an estimated 5,000 policyholders who suffered damage in the storm.
With the portable unit, adjusters are recording on videotape the general condition of the hurricane area and damage to properties insured by Fireman’s Fund American. The tapes can be kept for permanent documentation or reused as claims are closed and paid.
The company also used television for industrial news reporting. A segment of tape was flown .to the ' San Francisco home office where senior management received a virtual eyewitness account of the scope of destruction, extent of damage to insured properties and the progress in adjusting losses at the company’s catastrophe claims office in Biloxi.
The tape was received in San Francisco within days after adjusters entered the disaster area.
The videotape system used by Fireman's Fund American is a new generation, compact Sony “VideoRover” VTR unit and includes the portable battery-operated camera-recorder, monitor equipment, extra tapes and battery charger. The complete
Videotapes Claims .
Royce Freeland. Fireman’s- Fund American adjuster from Oklahoma City and assistant supervisor of the Company’s catastrophe claims office at Biloxi, videotapes the damage Hurricane Camille did to an apartment complex insured by his firm. This is the first time an insurance company has used video-
tape to help adjust insurance claims. The portable camera-recorder also records Freeland's comments as he shoots the scene. The tape can be kept for permanent documentation or reused when the claim is closed and paid.
system was assembled and airlifted to Mississippi on 24 hours notice.
“This videotape system has already proven its worth to us here,” said Thomas Rodgers, home office general adjuster who is in charge of the Fireman’s Fund emergency adjusting staff in Biloxi. “Several times it has saved our adjusters making an extra trip to investigate a claim.
“If a quc*%on comes up after the first inspection, all we do is run the tape through the moni-
tor here in the office. Usually we have the answer right then and the claim check can be processed without any further delay.
“Videotape also gives us a much better record of damage than the still photos we normally take. And there’s no wait while movie film is being developed.”
A microphone attached to the television camera allows the adjuster to record his comments on the videotape while he is shooting a scene.